


Decision

by agapi42



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-11-12 00:33:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18000389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agapi42/pseuds/agapi42
Summary: In which Alma deals with identical twins with very different temperaments and makes a momentous decision.





	Decision

The baby magic started early. The Cackles had always been powerful witches and Agatha and Ada showed every sign of continuing that tradition. Before either of them had learnt to roll over, they could set their magical mobiles in motion if they stopped.

They were identical twins. As infants, their magical signatures were impossible to tell apart but their behaviour was markedly different. When books crashed from the shelves or toys whizzed across the room to break against the opposite wall, Ada tended to grizzle while Agatha would giggle and coo, kicking her legs delightedly. When, after a particularly destructive bout of magic, she wrapped them each in a bubble so that the only thing within their magical reach was their blanket and a knitted ball, Ada chewed placidly on the corner of her blanket sending the ball looping in lazy circles. Agatha screamed and screamed, sending the ball ricocheting around with such force that she exhausted herself and abruptly fell asleep.  

They’re just temper tantrums, Alma told herself. She’s just a baby.

Still, nagging reservations remained. This was her _heir_ , the one who would take on the centuries-old legacy of Cackle’s Academy, the one who would be entrusted with the education and wellbeing of scores of young witches generations hence, with the very future of their society.

Twins, she told everyone.

Yes, but which is the elder?

They’re twins, she insisted. They don’t need to worry about that yet.

She did.

_Agatha, don’t–_

_Agatha, no–_

_Agatha, stop!_

“Agatha!” It was Gwen’s voice. Alma winced and hastened her steps across the grounds. She’d left the three-year-old twins in Gwen’s care while she made her presentation to the Magic Council. “Leave that poor thing _alone_.” By the sounds of it, it had not been an unqualified success.  

“Come here with Ada and I can help it. I can’t do anything with you crouched over it like that.”

Alma rounded the corner of the castle and beheld the scene. Agatha, with her back to her, crouched over something that squeaked with a distinct edge of fear and pain as she prodded it. Gwen, with Ada hiding her face in her skirts, stood a couple of feet back. She nodded to Alma.

Intent on her subject, Agatha didn’t seem to notice her mother’s approach until she was plucked from the ground. She thrashed and wailed– _no, no, no_ –but Alma was well used to that.

“What do we have here then?”  

It turned out to be a shivering, lopsided bat.

“Gwen, if you would.”  

Gwen hurried forward, holding Ada’s hand, and Alma turned her attention back to the daughter in her arms, hanging limp now.

“No, Agatha,” she started, again, and a wave of tiredness washed through her, made her heart ache. “We don’t hurt living things. We help them or we let others help them. Like Miss Bat is doing.”

Gwen was now kneeling by the bat, showing Ada how to hold her hands to focus the chant’s power.

“Why can’t you be more like your sister?” A frequent lament. “She sets an example as the oldest!”  

The words were out of her mouth before she realised. It had been in the back of her mind for some time but could she really? It would be a direct contravention of the Witches’ Code–

The relief on Gwen’s face as she looked up told Alma she’d made the right decision. Inheritance law could go hang. Some things were more important.


End file.
